More Madness at Duke

“Incoming freshmen at Duke University are expected to read a graphic novel with cartoon drawings of a woman masturbating and multiple females engaging in oral sex—as well as participate in group discussions during orientation.”— from Campus Reform

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5 thoughts on “More Madness at Duke”

This isn’t madness, and it’s not pornography. Fun Home is an excellent book (the musical version just won a Tony). The notion that all college-level literary work, even voluntary reading programs, should only be rated PG, is a dangerous kind of political correctness.

What would make it pornography? A live video of actual women performing oral sex on each other? You can certainly find that on the web. Or is that not pornography either?

Of all the things that incoming freshmen need to be channeled to think about as they enter the halls of learning — do they really need to be urged to think about female masturbation and lesbian sex? (Favorite themes of male-oriented porn, if you are unaware of this, perhaps some exploration is called for).

For heaven’s sake, the book is not “about” oral sex or masturbation any more than Ovid’s Metamorphosis is “about” violent rapes; they’re elements of the plots, but they’re not the primary thing you’re supposed to get out of either work. Possibly you should read the book before passing judgment on it. Isn’t that what we’re always telling the progressives to do?

Duke ’12 here. Seriously, there’s no call to fret about this one. The freshman class reading is “mandatory,” in the sense that you’re expected to go to a discussion about it, but no one will actually care whether you did it and everyone will forget about it three days later. It’s a posture-y thing that Duke does because all the Good Schools do it.

Also, I thought MtC was for academic freedom and for tackling difficult subjects? I’m not a Bechdel fan myself, and I don’t normally assign works by people who are still alive to my students, but it’s a critically acclaimed book by a respected author. I don’t see the problem here.